The Best American Sports Writing 2012 [Paperback]

Glenn Stout (Editor), Michael Wilbon (Editor)

Book Description

Release date: October 2, 2012 | Series: Best American

The Best American Series®

First, Best, and Best-Selling

The Best American series is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction. Each volume’s series editor selects notable works from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected — and most popular — of its kind.

The Best American Sports Writing 2012 includes

PAUL SOLOTAROFF JEANNE MARIE LASKAS WELLS TOWER WRIGHT THOMPSON S. L. PRICE DAVE SHEININ JON MOOALLEM and others

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Glenn Stout is the author, editor or ghostwriter of nearly eighty books, including the groundbreaking Boston Globe bestseller Fenway 1912: The Birth of a Ballpark, a Championship Season, and Fenway's Remarkable First Year, bestsellers Red Sox Century and Yankees Century, and the critically acclaimed Nine Months at Ground Zero, The Best American Sports Writing, and Young Woman and The Sea: How Trudy Ederle Conquered the English Channel and Inspired the World and his own award winning juvenile sports biography series - "Good Sports." 

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; 1 edition (October 2, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0547336977
• ISBN-13: 978-0547336978
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1 x 8.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #63,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #11 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Miscellaneous > Journalism
  • #32 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Miscellaneous > Essays
  • #54 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Miscellaneous > History of Sports

More About the Author

Glenn Stout is the author, editor or ghostwriter of nearly eighty books, including the groundbreaking Boston Globe bestseller Fenway 1912: The Birth of a Ballpark, a Championship Season, and Fenway's Remarkable First Year, bestsellers Red Sox Century and Yankees Century, and the critically acclaimed Nine Months at Ground Zero, The Best American Sports Writing, and Young Woman and The Sea: How Trudy Ederle Conquered the English Channel and Inspired the Worldand his own award winning juvenile sports biography series - "Good Sports." Glenn is available to make author visits to schools, deliver lectures on the history of Fenway Park and make other speaking engagements.

Born in Ohio and a graduate of Bard College, Glenn is dual citizen of the United States and Canada and lives in Vermont with his family, two cats, one dog and one rabbit on Lake Champlain. Before becoming a writer Glenn did construction work, served as a security guard, a painter, and worked in libraries. Glenn invites his readers to his blog, to join his facebook page for The Best American Sports Writing, or to visit his website, glennstout.net. Educators interested in arranging an "author visit" to their school can find information on Glenn's Good Sports website www.goodsportsbyglennstout or query Glenn directly at [e-mail].

Thanks for reading!

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Something missing December 3, 2012

By Sean Ryan

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

As a sports journalist, I've been a big fan of Best American since '91, but recent editions have disappointed. For some reason, the editors seem to think that bigger is better, and the more serious the topic the more worthy it is of inclusion. So where haver all the wonderful 700-800 word pieces gone? Where is the humour? The title is Best Sports Writing, not Best Sports Stories. The stories are good but they tend to be on the sombre side, forgetting that sport is a pastime and, as such, should have its share of good humour. I'm writing this in the hope that future editions will get the balance right - or has America no worthy successor to Jim Murray, Rick Reilly and their like?

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Generally excellent, occasionally uneven January 10, 2013

By R. Ricks

Format:Paperback

A slightly uneven but generally appealing anthology of American sports writing from 2012. These published chapters are generally extended (15-25 pages) profiles or investigative pieces; a couple of pieces run to 40+ pages.

Many of these essays explore the often tragic personal costs of sports, particularly those sports, like football and hockey, where repeated blows to the head are an almost unavoidable feature of the game. Of the three or four essays that dealt with the effects of concussions, "Punched Out, the extended profile of hockey's Derek Boogaard, is the best.

Other pieces point out how sports act as a positive influence, serving as an escape from poverty and abuse. The profiles of Frank Shorter, the famous marathoner who was abused as a child, and of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania's high school football program are both excellent.

My single favorite piece was Taylor Branch's devastating attack on the NCAA, "The Shame of College Sports." It underscores just how cynically the ideal of "amateurism" has been manipulated in college sports, and how the organization that is supposed to represent and protect "student-athletes"--in a bit of Newspeak-like censorship, the NCAA requires that journalists use this label rather than "players"--often does just the opposite, extracting wealth.

If I had a complaint about the principle of selection, it is that these essays almost exclusively survey the human or business side of sports. There ought to be a place here for a few pieces that represent the best technical analysis of gameplay, player technique, coaching, or strategy.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Always good November 22, 2012

By J. Mitchell

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I give this collection to my son every year as a birthday gift for his late November birthday. He loves getting it and reads it cover to cover. He keeps all the older ones and re-reads some of those articles, too. No one has the time to read all the source publications that are culled to make this collection. Even if my son might have read one or two of the articles, he always finds gems he never would have come across without this book.